Always Too Late
by Tara Kitaide
Summary: Before Kaien, Rukia lost another important person to her. Implied light one-sided Rorschach/Rukia. Bleach/Watchmen x-over Flames welcome


**Implied one-sided Rorschach/Rukia. First Chapter. Please do Review. Flames are welcomed. This story is un-beta'd. If you would like to Beta, please note.**

Usually Rukia was a kind and inviting person. Usually she was very warm, innocent, and always upheld a friendly persona. Usually she would grin and bear though whatever was being said (especially around strangers and her nii-sama) but there was none of that with him. She was always harsh and cold; wicked and closed off. She didn't know why but she blamed him. Him and that damn _face_.

She didn't know when it started; the fascination. She didn't know why she met him every night or why she even bothered to try and talk to him. Sometimes she stalked it up to her loneliness but that couldn't be right. She wasn't lonely at all. After all, this was just all his fault.

The night they met defiantly went down as her most unusual night ever. Her captain had posted her in the human world, across the ocean to a country called America, in a city known as New York. She didn't like it here. The people were rude and ugly, it was filled with whores and thugs, and it didn't particularly smell all that great either. She didn't like to be in her soul form, leaving her lifeless body in such a filthy apartment with inferior locks, but it was required to hunt for Hallows. It was better than leaving it in an alley. She shuddered to think of it.

That night, she hadn't been so luck and was forced to fall back into an alley to dump her body when she got an alert. She was so close to home too. Reluctantly, Rukia took out her soul candy, unaware of the knot-tops following her. She was small and looked rather frail but it was in fact the opposite. The grown men following didn't know anything about her being a powerful shinigami. Rukia doubted they even knew what shinigami were in this country. If they did, they certainly wouldn't appreciate them.

Just as she had the candy in hand, her favorite cartoon rabbit smiling up from the top of it, a voice called out that made her stop.

"Hey, little girl, you lost?"

She turned around and faced the thugs, tucking her soul candy away with a groan and crossing her arms. She really didn't want to dignify these people with a response. What would they do if she turned into a shinigami and beat them all right there, she wondered? Either way, she was strong enough in her gigai for this bunch. "Maybe I am. Who wants to know?"

The man sneered and stepped forward. It was only then that Rukia noticed the knife gripped tightly in his flabby hand. Oh did he have another thing coming. "We want to know and we're the law around here so I'd be careful how you speak to us _little girl_."

That was it. Man, did he have it coming! Rukia tightened her hand into a fist and would have rolled her sleeves up if she wasn't wearing a dress. "Maybe I don't feel much like complying with the _law_."

"You'll regret that." The knot-top man snarled, signaling his men to attack like they were dogs. They all came after her with a growl but none got close enough to touch her before a dark figure practically swooped down and knocked them all off their feet.

She doesn't remember much of what happened after that, only that she watched with amazing speed as her vigilante hero beat the whole gang to a pulp. Was he even human?

The man turned to her when he had finished, no evidence of surprise by her defensive pose. Her brushed his trench coat off and straightened his hat before stuffing his hands in his pockets roughly. "Are you hurt?"

She wasn't thrown off by the question at all. She had been expecting it almost like they had both been handed scripts beforehand. What she wasn't expecting was the face. She was sure it was a mask, absolutely had to be, although she had seen some pretty odd things (and by things she meant hallows) in her life. It was an ever changing array of shifting black and white dots. The black flowed in and out of its self perfectly, never mixing to grey. She didn't like it. "No." She shook her head and lowered her fists, relaxing into a normal stance. "Who are you?"

The man looked at her for a moment with that odd face. She was waiting for him to say his lines; say his name and tell her just how and why he had saved her. The whole audience was in suspense. They wanted to know! If he didn't say it soon, it would ruin the whole play!

Without a word he eventually turned around and walked back down the alley. She had never been so disappointed in her life, not even when Renji was willing to let her go. She gaped and furrowed her brows before trying to decently compose herself. He had ruined the play! He'd forgotten his lines! That wasn't in the script!

"How rude!" She marched after him, stomping her way quickly in front of him so she could block his path. "You're not going to tell me anything? Or demand a thank you? Nothing?! What is it with people in this country! You're only quiet and reserved when it's good for you? Come on!" She swung her arms around animatedly only to place them angrily on her hips when she was finished. The vigilante looked u from his spot on the ground and looked at her again.

"You haven't heard of me?"

She groaned and threw her hands up. "No! I have never heard of America having costumed weirdoes! Sorry I was left out of the loop!"

This seemed to amuse him mildly. She figured he didn't get to introduce himself often. How famous could he be? "Rorschach." He muttered under the latex mask. "Im a... Vigilante."

She went back to crossing her arms. Her face softened a little but she still wasn't happy. "Okay then," she looked at Rorschach. "Was that so hard?"

Rorschach shrugged and said nothing. Rukia huffed and chewed the inside of her lip. "Why did you save me?"

"It's my job." He said quickly, wanting to dismiss all reasons for attachment. He didn't even want to be here. He momentarily considered just beating her out of the way but he didn't like it. "It was nothing personal."

"Your job? What, you make it a point to save people? I'm perfectly capable of handling myself, thank you very much." She glared at where she believed his eyes to be.

As they stared venially at each other, Rukia let her spiritual preasure drift as she searched for his Spirit ribbon. She may not know his face but she would be able to find him again, when he least expected it, by his spirit ribbon. Not all people had purely white spirit ribbons. If you looked close, you would be able to make out the slight tear and wear and the yellowed color. She concentrated enough on him to catch if he said anything while going through the seas of white. There were too many people around at this time of night.

Finally, she found it. She could feel it extend towards her reluctantly as she reeled it in. As it came out, it wrapped around his neck before straightening out. She found this odd, never having seen it before. She would remember to ask her captain what it meant when she got back. As it came close enough to touch, she noticed it was very torn. Usually a person with a tragic life would have a dirty and torn ribbon but she'd never seen one as bad as his. It looked as though it was clawed almost to shreds and the odd thing was that it wasn't dirty. No, on the contrary, it was white; _very white indeed_. It was a blinding contrast against the other ribbons. What kind of person was this vigilante Rorschach?

"Thank you." She spat. She could let him go now and know it wouldn't be the last she'd seen of him.

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End file.
